Counseling method offers victim-guided way to talk about past traumas

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --- The devastating fires in Lewiston this month showed that life can be traumatic sometimes. For mental health counselors the goal then becomes getting victims of disaster to talk about them.

Many licensed therapists have been learning one method in Bangor over the last few days. It's called Traumatic Incident Reduction training and essentially isone method where the victim of trauma opens and guides a session from start to finish.

For the most part all the other person has to do is listen. There's no giving advice, evaluating or judging. The hope is by getting a victim of trauma to talk about what's bothering them, they can find a way to put it behind them.

"It brings what's unconscious to the conscious level and it could be something that happened a long long time ago," said Brenda Thompson, who is alicensed mental health counselor and trained in the method.

"It's not just for big tragedies like Newtown Connecticut or Boston," remarked Cynthia Scott, who is a trainer of Traumatic Incident Reduction, "it can be used for the bloody fish that the child is scared about and it can be used for a plane crash in Guam and really anything in between."

Traumatic Incident Reduction has been recognized as an effective tool by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.